\ 


SPEECH 


HON.  JULIUS  KAHN, 


OF  CALIFORNIA, 

IN  THE 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 


Monday,  February  i8,  1007. 


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WASHINGTON. 

1907. 


o 


(7> 


SPEECH 

OP 

HON.  JULIUS  KAHN. 


I) 


The  House  having  under  consideration  the  conference  report  on  the 
bill  (S.  4403)  to  amend  an  act  entitled  “An  act  to  regulate  the  immi¬ 
gration  of  aliens  into  the  United  States,”  approved  March  3,  1903 — 

Mr.  KAHN  said : 

Mr.  Speaker  :  The  proviso  at  the  end  of  the  first  section  of 
this  bill,  while  it  does  not  go  as  far  as  Members  upon  this  floor 
from  the  State  of  California  would  desire,  nevertheless  meets 
with  their  hearty  approval.  The  conditions  that  require  such  a 
provision  are  these :  The  Japanese  Government  itself,  we  are 
informed,  does  not  desire  its  cooly  laborers  to  come  to  the 
mainland  of  the  United  States ;  therefore  it  positively  refuses 
to  issue  passports  to  those  coolies  to  come  to  the  mainland  of 
this  country ;  and  no  Japanese  cooly  can  leave  the  home 
country  without  a  passport.  But  there  are  many  and  large 
Japanese  interests  in  Hawaii,  and  so  the  Japanese  Government 
readily  grants  its  laborers  passports  to  our  island  possessions. 
So  the  cooly  asks  for  a  passport  to  Hawaii  and  lands  there  in 
due  season.  As  soon  as  he  sets  foot  on  American  soil  at  Hono¬ 
lulu  he  is  no  longer  under  the  jurisdiction  of  his  home  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  shortly  thereafter  he  takes  passage  to  the  mainland 
of  the  United  States.  Now,  we  believe  that  this  provision,  if 
enacted  into  law,  will  absolutely  prohibit  the  Japanese  cooly 
from  coming  to  California  and  the  mainland. 

Mr.  GILBERT.  Mr.  Speaker - 

Mr.  KAHN.  I  can  not  yield;  I  have  only  two  minutes. 

The  SPEAKER.  The  gentleman  declines  to  yield. 

Mr.  KAHN.  As  I  said,  we  believe  it  will  prohibit  these 
coolies  from  coming  from  the  island  possessions  to  the  mainland, 
and  since  the  cooly  can  not  procure  a  passport  from  the  Japa¬ 
nese  Government  to  come  to  the  mainland,  we  feel  that  it  will 
wipe  out  all  cause  of  friction  that  now  exists  because  these 
coolies  come.  We  accept  it  because  we  believe  it  to  be  a  step  in 
the  right  direction.  We  have  had  great  experience  in  exclusion 
legislation.  It  took  us  four  years  to  get  the  first  Chinese-immi- 
gration  law.  It  took  us  ten  years  more  to  secure  the  first 
Chinese-exclusion  law.  This  present  legislation  comes  to  us 
within  one  year  after  our  people  have  asked  for  Japanese  ex¬ 
clusion.  We  hope  it  may  prove  effective.  At  any  rate,  we 
from  California  are  willing  to  give  it  a  trial.  We  believe,  as 
I  have  already  stated,  that  it  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction, 
and  therefore  we  heartily  indorse  it.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  desire  to 
print,  as  a  part  of  my  remarks,  an  address  I  recently  delivered 
in  the  city  of  Boston,  and  which,  I  believe,  expresses  the  views  of 
a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  California : 

Speech  of  Hon.  Julius  Kahn  on  '^Asiatie  immigration  ”  "before  the 
Middlesex  Club,  Boston,  Mass.,  February  12,  1907. 

Because  the  people  of  California  have  taken  a  decided  stand  in  favor 
of  the  exclusion  of  Asiatic  coolies  they  are  too  frequently  charged  with 
being  intolerant  and  provincial.  They  are  neither.  On  the  contrary, 

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they  are  among  the  most  tolerant  people  in  the  whole  world ;  while 
San  Francisco,  the  splendid  metropolis  of  the  Golden  State,  is  one  of 
the  most  cosmopolitan  communities  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  Walking 
along  her  busy  thoroughfares  one  meets  representatives  of  every  race, 
of  every  land,  of  every  clime — and  even  the  occasional  immigrant  from 
the  distant  Indies,  clothed  in  the  strange,  fantastic  garb  of  his  native 
land,  scarcely  excites  passing  comment.  It  is  not  at  all  strange  that 
such  should  be  the  case.  The  very  manner  in  which  the  State  was  set¬ 
tled  bred  a  spirit  of  tolerance  from  the  very  beginning. 

When  the  news  was  heralded  to  the  nations  of  the  world  that  gold 
had  been  found  within  the  confines  of  the  newly  acquired  territory  of 
the  United  States  known  as  “  California, ’’  a  steady  stream  of  sturdy, 
hardy,  adventurous  pioneers  set  their  faces  toward  the  land  of  the  set¬ 
ting  sun.  Some  braved  all  the  dangers  of  a  six  months’  journey  across 
the  plains,  through  lands  infested  by  tribes  of  hostile  and  marauding 
Indians  ;  others  risked  their  lives  in  creaking  hulks  that  made  the  long 
and  tedious  voyage  around  the  storm-swept  seas  of  Cape  Horn  ;  while 
.  others  still  defied  the  malignant  fevers  that  lurked  in  the  swamps  of 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama  ;  all  of  them  eager  to  seek  fame  and  fortune 
in  this  new  Eldorado.  The  resolute  and  the  brave  alone  reached  the 
goal.  It  was,  in  verity,  a  case  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  The 
weaklings  and  the  cowards  fell  by  the  wayside  or  returned  ignomin- 
iously  to  their  homes  and  friends.  There  were  few  in  that  great  out¬ 
pouring  of  Argonauts  that  had  passed  middle  life.  Most  of  them  were 
young  men  of  good  education  and  good  breeding.  In  the  mad  quest 
for  the  precious  yellow  metal  religious  and  political  lines  were  oblit¬ 
erated  and  all  men  felt  that  they  were  kin.  The  proud  planter  from 
the  Southern  States  bunked  in  the  same  cabin  with  the  humble  farmer 
from  New  England.  Immigrants  from  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  to 
say  nothing  of  Australia  and  South  America,  clasped  hands  ’neath 
the  azure  skies  of  glorious  California  and  forgot  the  antagonisms  of 
countless  ages.  Why,  the  very  conditions  that  prevailed  in  the  mining 
camps  and  in  the  pueblos  made  these  men  tolerant  of  the  rights  of 
others. 

But  they  had  not  been  in  the  Golden  State  more  than  two  or  three 
years  when  the  first  Asiatic  coolies  made  their  appearance  among  them. 
These  were  Chinese,  who  had  been  brought  from  their  native  land  under 
contract  to  work  in  the  gold  mines.  From  the  very  outset  their  pres¬ 
ence  was  iooked  upon  as  a  menace.  Their  habits,  their  customs,  their 
method  of  living,  and  the  low  wages  for  which  they  worked  at  once 
caused  a  strong  antipathy  to  spring  up  against  them.  This  feeling 
gradually  grew  stronger  and  stronger  as  they  came  in  increasing  num¬ 
bers  during  the  succeeding  years,  until  it  finally  culminated  in  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  the  so-called  “  Chinese-exclusion  laws,”  under  the  terms  of 
which  their  number  has  decreased  materially  during  the  past  ten  years. 

But  during  these  ten  years  a  new  invasion  of  Asiatic  coolies  has  be¬ 
gun  to  threaten  the  peace  and  the  welfare  of  the  people  of  California. 
However,  I  deem  it  but  proper  to  state  at  this  time,  and  in  this  pres¬ 
ence,  that  there  is  no  antagonism  on  the  Pacific  coast  to  the  .Japanese 
of  the  better  class,  such  as  scholars,  professional  men,  bankers,  and 
merchants.  The  opposition  i.s  entirely  directed  against  the  cooly.  or 
laboring,  class.  And  I  say  frankly  that  the  .Japanese  cooly  is  much 
more  feared  in  California  than  is  his  meek,  docile,  childlike,  and  bland 
counterpart  from  the  vicinage  of  Canton. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  .Japanese  cooly  did  not  make  his  appearance 
among  us  to  any  appreciable  extent  prior  to  the  close  of  the  China-.Japan 
war.  Since  then,  however,  he  has  been  coming  in  constantly  increasing 
numbers,  and  during  the  past  year  he  has  been  landing  at  the  port  of 
San  Francisco  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  or  more  every  month.  He 
comes  by  way  of  Hawaii,  where  his  countrymen  already  outnumber  the 
representatives  of  all  other  races.  His  own  Government  refuses  to  give 
him  a  passport  to  the  mainland  of  the  United  States,  and  none  of  the 
cooly  class  can  leave  .Japan  without  one  of  these  passports.  So  he 
takes  his  permit  for  Hawaii  and  in  due  season  he  arrives  at  Honolulu. 
Once  landed  in  the  “  Paradise  of  the  Pacific,”  his  home  Government  has 
no  further  control  over  him,  and  he  promptly  takes  the  very  next 
steamer  for  San  Francisco.  He  is  not  altogether  an  unskilled  laborer, 
and  almost  immediately  after  his  arrival  at  the  Golden  Gate  he  enters 
Into  direct  competition  with  white  skilled  mechanics.  Our  experience 
with  him  has  taught  us  that  even  where  he  begins  work  as  an  unskilled 
laborer  he  does  not  stay  at  it  very  long.  He  soon  branches  out  in  busi¬ 
ness  for  him.self  as  a  contractor,  a  restaurant  keeper,  a  florist,  or  some 
other  vocation  of  that  kind.  Now,  that  in  itself  is  commendable  enough  ; 
but  the  moment  he  has  put  up  his  sign  he  begins  to  cut  the  bottom  out 
of  prices.  As  a  general  rule  he  has  no  family  to  support,  for  most  of 
the  Japanese  that  come  to  the  United  States  are  males.  They  are  not 
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accompanied  by  their  wives  and  children  to  any  great  extent,  as  is  the 
case  with  European  immigrants.  In  fact,  most  of  the  .Japanese  women 
that  land  upon  our  shores  are  brought  here  for  immoral  purposes.  And 
80,  since  he  has  few  mouths  to  feed,  and  since  he  can  make  a  good 
meal  on  a  handful  of  rice,  a  piece  of  dried  fish,  and  a  cup  of  tea,  he 
can  afford  to,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  does  sell  his  commodities  at 
about  one-half  the  price  his  Caucasian  neighbor  is  compelled  to  charge. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  is  small  wonder  that  there  is  an  outcry 
against  him  from  our  shopkeepers  and  our  laboring  classes.  California, 
by  reason  of  her  geographical  location,  has  to  bear  the  brunt  of  this 
fight.  Those  who  do  not  understand  the  conditions  that  prevail  in  that 
State  are  too  apt  to  condemn  her  people  for  their  stand  on  the  question 
of  Asiatic  immigration.  But  it  is  a  case  of  self-preservation  with  us,  and 
if  conditions  were  reversed  and  the  great  hordes  of  Asiatic  coolies  were 
to  make  their  American  debut  on  the  shores  of  Massachusetts,  yo\i 
would  probably  have  an  outcry  here  compared  to  which  the  protest 
that  comes  from  California  bears  the  same  proportion  that  a  balmy 
summer  zephyr  bears  to  a  genuine  Nebraska  blizzard. 

Suppose,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  Boston  were  the  nearest  port 
to  Japan  and  that  your  suburbs,  even  as  they  are  at  present,  were  the 
seats  of  large  manufacturing  interests,  especially  in  the  production  of 
shoes  and  cotton  goods.  It  is  an  admitted  fact  that  during  recent 
years  the  Japanese  have  made  marvelous  progress  in  the  manufacture 
of  cotton  goods.  In  the  mills  now  being  operated  in  Japan  the  opera¬ 
tive  receives  from  10  to  15  cents  a  day,  with  long  hours  of  labor  and 
no  Sunday  rest.  After  he  has  learned  how  to  handle  the  machinery 
properly  the  Japanese  operator  feels  that  he  can  better  his  condition 
by  coming  to  Boston,  where  he  can  purchase  the  commodities  he  con¬ 
sumes  about  as  cheaply  as  he  can  in  his  own  country,  and  where  he 
can  well  afford  to  work  for  40  or  50  cents  a  day,  which  is  three  or  four 
hundred  per  cent  more  than  he  can  earn  on  his  native  heath  in  the  same 
line  of  endeavor.  A  few  of  these  laborers  come  over  at  first  and  excite 
little  attention.  These  find  that  the  field  is  a  productive  one,  and 
shortly  each  incoming  steamer  brings  them  in  in  larger  numbers.  Grad¬ 
ually  they  begin  to  displace  your  white  laborers  in  the  cotton  mills. 
Soon  after  they  attack  your  woolen  mills,  then  your  shoe  factories,  and 
almost  at  the  same  time  they  go  into  your  fishing  industry  and  drive 
the  fishermen  of  Gloucester  and  Cape  Cod  to  the  wall.  Your  white 
laborers  find  that  they  can  not — and,  what  is  more,  they  will  not — come 
down  to  the  standard  of  living  of  the  Japanese.  They  soon  realize  that 
it  is  a  struggle  for  existence  between  Caucasian  civilization  and  the 
civilization  of  Asia.  Which  would  your  people  espouse?  Which  ought 
your  people  to  espouse?  Do  you  think  the  citizens  of  your  Common¬ 
wealth  would  allow  the  white  man  to  be  driven  out  of  the  factories  and 
workshops,  or  do  you  think  they  would  take  the  attitude  taken  by  the 
people  of  California  on  this  question? 

I  have  repeatedly  stated,  since  this  question  of  the  exclusion  of  Japa¬ 
nese  coolies  has  come  to  vex  us,  that  there  is  no  animosity  toward  the 
.sons  of  Nippon,  as  such,  in  the  Golden  State.  Her  people  have  admired 
and  still  admire  the  splendid  progress  the  Japanese  have  made  during 
the  comparatively  brief  period  that  has  elapsM  since  the  doors  of  Dai 
Nippon  were  swung  open  to  the  commerce  of  occidental  nations.  Their 
art  has  won  plaudits  from  the  aesthetic  in  every  land.  They  have  rqade 
giant  strides  in  science,  in  literature,  in  manufactures.  Their  patriot¬ 
ism  and  love  of  country  have  challenged  the  admiration  of  mankind  and 
may  well  be  emulated  by  other  nationalities.  And,  finally,  their  prow¬ 
ess  as  brave  and  courageous  defenders  of  flag  and  country  has  been  a 
revelation  to  the  ministries  of  the  world.  They  have  a  right  to  feel 
proud  of  their  achievements,  and  we  cheerfully  accord  to  them  all  the 
praise  and  all  the  honor  those  achievements  merit.  But  we  feel  that 
we  can  admire  them  just  as  well  from  the  vantage  ground  of  a  respect¬ 
ful  distance.  Nor  need  our  hypersensitive  Japanese  friends  feel  that 
we  want  to  wound  their  feelings  when  we  say  that. 

After  all,  commerce  between  nations  is  only  an  amplification  of  trade 
between  individuals.  In  our  complex  business  life  in  these  United 
States  there  are  millions  of  buyers  and  sellers  who  de^al  with  each 
other  year  in  and  year  out.  They  meet  in  the  marts  of  trade,  make 
their  purchases,  pay  their  bills,  and  separate  until  another  transaction 
again  brings  them  into  personal  contact.  In  the  interim  each  goes  his 
particular  way,  as  though  the  other  had  no  existence.  Because  a  large 
storekeeper  buys  an  extensive  bill  of  voods  from  a  leading  manufacturer 
it  does  not  necessarily  become  incumbent  upon  the  latter  to  introduce 
the  former  into  his  household  and  take  him  into  the  bosom  of  his 
family.  Every  man’s  house  is  his  castle,  and  because  some  gentleman 
happens  to  be  a  good  customer  it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  one 
must  open  one’s  home  to  him  and  invite  him  to  become  a  guest  of  one’s 
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household.  And  It  seems  to  me  that  the  same  general  principle  applies 
with  equal  force  to  international  commerce.  Relatively  speaking,  the 
citizens  of  these  United  States  represent  a  great  family,  while  the  citi¬ 
zens  of  Japan  represent  another.  And  they  ought  to  be  able  to  still 
buy  from  each  other,  sell  to  each  other,  and  transact  business  generally 
with  each  other  without  the  necessity,  however,  of  either  taking  the 
laborers  of  the  other  into  the  bosoms  of  their  respective  families. 

In  this  country  of  ours,  with  its  divers  and  sometimes  conflicting  in¬ 
terests  it  takes  a  long  time  to  bring  about  a  decided  sentiment  on  such 
an  important  question  as  the  exclusion  of  any  particular  race.  In  the 
matter  of  Chinese  exclusion,  although  the  residents  of  California  were 
practically  a  unit  on  the  subject,  it  took  four  long  years  of  constant  and 
aggressive  agitation  to  bring  about  the  enactment  of  the  first  Chinese 
immigration  laws.  And  although  a  quarter  of  a  c«ntury  has  rolled 
around  since  then  I  think  the  overwhelming  sentiment  of  the  people  of 
this  country  is  in  favor  of  the  rigid  enforcement  of  those  laws,  provided 
always  that  no  personal  indignities  are  visited  upon  those  Chinese  who 
are  specially  exempted  from  the  provisions  of  those  laws. 

And  therefore  the  people  of  California,  with  the  experiences  of  the 
past  to  gu’de  them,  had  looked  forward  to  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  to 
secure  the  extension  of  the  exclusion  laws  to  .Japanese  and  Korean 
coolies.  But  the  incident  of  the  segregation  of  Japanese  children  from 
white  children  in  the  primary  and  grammar  schools  of  San  Francisco 
at  once  brought  the  question  of  the  exclusion  of  Japanese  laborers  into 
the  foreground  and  made  it  a  burning,  vital  issue.  For  some  reason 
or  other  in  the  discussion  of  the  matter  of  the  segregation  of  pupils  an 
effort  has  been  made  to  create  the  impression  throughout  the  country 
that  San  Francisco  had  denied  all  Japanese  children  admission  into 
her  public  schools.  No  such  step  has  even  been  contemplated.  The 
action  of  the  school  board  simply  contemplated  the  consolidation  of  all 
Japanese  school  children  under  one  roof,  and  it  has  been  generally  ad¬ 
mitted  that  the  school  provided  for  these  Japanese  and  other  oriental 
children  was  equally  as  good  as  were  the  schools  attended  by  white  chil¬ 
dren.  The  corps  of  instructors  were  experienced  in  their  work  and 
compared  most  favorably  with  the  teachers  in  the  other  schools  of  the 
city.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  this  school  question  this  evening. 
My  individual  opinion  is,  and  always  has  been,  that  every  State  in  the 
Union  has  the  absolute  right  to  regulate  her  own  schools  in  any  man¬ 
ner  she  sees  fit  and  that  no  outsider,  not  even  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  has  the  right  to  interfere.  But  the  courts  will  probably 
pass  upon  that  subject,  and  anything  that  I  may  say  upon  it  would  be 
purely  academic.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  discussion  of  the  school 
(juestion  has  constantly  carried  more  or  less  war  talk  in  its  train. 
Personally,  I  have  never  taken  any  stock  in  such  talk.  I  have  always 
felt  that  the  good  common  sense  of  the  two  nations  would  assert  itself 
and  that  a  solution  would  be  found  which  would  be  creditable  alike  to 
the  people  of  our  own  Government  and  the  Government  of  Japan.  I 
believe  such  a  programme  is  now  fairly  under  way  and  that  there  is 
every  prospect  for  an  early  settlement  of  the  much-discussed  question. 
.\nd  in  its  solution  I  hope  the  question  of  the  exclusion  of  Japanese 
coolies  will  likewise  be  determined. 

It  has  been  generally  believed  on  the  Pacific  coast  that  the  manu¬ 
facturers  of  this  country  are  the  most  pronounced  opponents  to  the 
enactment  of  exclusion  laws.  If  that  be  true,  let  me  say  to  those 
manufacturers  that  the  fear  of  the  sale  of  a  few  bolts  of  cotton  cloth 
is  not  a  sufficient  argument  with  which  to  answer  the  cry  of  the  Cau¬ 
casian  population  of  the  Pacific  coast  against  being  overwhelmed  by 
the  yellow  and  brown  hordes  from  the  shores  of  Asia.  The  experience 
of  many  years  has  taught  us  that  occidental  and  oriental  civilizations 
will  not  mix.  The  Chinese  and  Japanese  may  dwell  among  us  for  cen¬ 
turies.  but  at  the  end  they  will  still  remain  Chinese  and  Japanese. 
The  Chinatowns  of  our  California  communities  have  been  in  existence 
for  upward  of  fifty  years,  and  in  all  that  time  there  has  been  no  ad¬ 
mixture  of  the  races.  And  so  in  the  Orient  “  East  is  east  and  West 
is  west.”  The  Caucasians  who  have  settled  in  the  Far  East  never  in¬ 
termingle  and  mix  and  intermarry  with  their  Chinese  or  Japanese 
neighbors,  but  occupy  a  settlement  or  compound  separate  and  apart 
from  the  brown  or  yellow  races.  As  Henry  Norman  has  so  well  put 
it  in  his  book.  The  Far  East — and  to  my  mind  his  description  sums  up 
the  entire  situation  in  a  few  sentences — “  We  may  like  Japan  and  ad¬ 
mire  her  and  trade  with  her.  and  for  my  part  I  do  not  think  it  possible 
to  know  .Japan  without  both  liking  and  admiring  her  greatly ;  and 
Japan  may  like  us  and  appropriate  our  knowledge  and  trade  with  us. 
But  Englishman,  American,  Frenchman,  or  German  is  one  kind  of  hu¬ 
man  being  and  Japanese  is  another.  Between  them  stands,  and  will 
stand  forever,  the  sacred  and  ineradicable  distinction  of  race.” 

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7 


That  tells  the  whole  story.  And  the  sooner  our  countrymen  realize 
It  and  recognize  it  the  sooner  this  whole  vexed  question  will  be  settled 
and  settled  right.  And  in  settling  it  right  we  need  not  fear  that  our 
commerce  will  be  made  to  suffer.  We  will  have  our  good  years  and 
our  bad  years  of  trade.  There  will  be  ups  and  downs,  successes  and  re¬ 
verses,  all  arising  out  of  and  influenced  and  regulated  by  purely  local 
conditions.  For  myself  I  have  always  felt  that  while  for  some  years 
to  come  we  will  get  our  fair  share  of  the  oriental  trade,  so  far  as  that 
trade  relates  to  manufactured  articles,  the  time  would  ultimately  come 
when  all  European  countries  as  well  as  ourselves  would  lose  all  or 
nearly  all  of  that  trade.  It  is  only  a  question  of  years  ere  the  native 
populations  of  the  Far  East  will  have  learned  to  produce  the  manu¬ 
factured  commodities  we  now  sell  them.  The  reports  of  American  and  « 
English  consular  oflicers  published  within  the  past  month  or  two  are 
indicative  of  what  the  future  has  in  store.  According  to  their  state¬ 
ments  Japanese  shirtings,  drills,  and  other  cloths  made  in  Japan  and 
China  is  “  good  cloth,  well  woven,  and  gives  American  cloth  serious 
competition,”  The  Japanese  are  great  imitators.  Give  them  a  pat¬ 
tern  and  in  short  order  they  can  produce  it  to  perfection.  Some  of 
you  may  have  read  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  Colt’s  Patent  Fire  Arms 
Manufacturing  Company  from  Japan,  an  account  of  which  was  pub¬ 
lished  in  the  newspapers  of  this  country  two  or  three  months  ago.  I 
sent  the  accounts  to  the  president  of  the  company,  asking  him  to  kindly 
let  me  know  the  true  facts  in  regard  to  the  matter.  In  due  season  I 
received  the  following  reply  : 

Hartford,  Conn.,  January  U,  1907. 

lion,  Julius  Kahn, 

House  of  Representatives,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Sir  :  I  beg  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  favor  of  the  12th  Instant ; 
also  the  newspaper  clippings  within  referred  to.  The  paragraph  in  the 
clipping  referring  to  the  market  for  the  product  of  the  Colt’s  Patent 
Fire  Arms  Manufacturing  Company  in  the  Far  East  as  having  been 
practically  destroyed  is  true ;  also  the  report  of  the  British  army 
officer,  although  he  did  not  make  the  investigation  at  the  request  of 
this  company.  He  reported  that  he  found  in  southern  China  a  Chinese 
arms  factory,  under  the  superintendence  of  Japanese,  which  was  manu¬ 
facturing  the  Colt  automatic  guns.  It  was  also  reported  to  us  that 
the  Japanese,  previous  to  their  war  with  Russia,  manufactured  a  large 
number  of  Colt  automatic  and  Gatling  guns  at  the  armories  in  Japan, 
ind  this  we  have  every  reason  to  ^believe  is  true,  as  during  the  past 
eighteen  months  we  have  receivea  no  inquiry  for  machine  guns  from 
the  Far  East. 

It  is  well  known  that  with  very  little  teaching  the  Japanese  make 
very  skillful  mechanics,  and  the  low  rate  of  labor  in  China  and  Japan 
makes  it  impossible  for  the  American  manufacturer  to  compete  with 
them. 

Respectfully,  Colt^s  Patent  Fire  Arms  Mfg,  Co., 

L.  C.  Grover,  President. 

Surely  Mr.  Grover  can  not  be  charged  with  having  the  so-called 
“bigoted  and  intolerant”  notions  of  the  people  of  California;  but, 
like  the  latter,  he  has  had  actual  experiences  with  the  little  brown 
men.  Mr.  Grover  hails  from  New  England,  and  we  from  California 
are  glad  to  accept  and  welcome  him  as  a  friend  and  ally. 

But  the  case  of  the  Colt  company  is  only  a  forerunner  of  what  we 
may  expect  to  happen  with  our  oriental  trade.  Japan  is  just  as  am¬ 
bitious  commercially  as  we  are.  She  will  exert  every  effort  to  build 
up  her  markets  at  our  expense.  She  has  given  evidence  that  she  will 
even  subsidize  her  manufacturers,  if  it  shall  become  necessary,  for 
them  to  control  their  markets.  And  I  have  always  felt  that  if  ever  a 
clash  of  arms  shall  occur  between  the  two  nations  it  will  arise  as  a 
result  of  our  own  commercial  expansion  interfering  with  the  commer¬ 
cial  expansion  of  our  powerful  neighbor  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Pacific. 

In  that  connection  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  both  the  Japanese 
nation  and  the  American  nation  are  alike  proud,  sensitive,  ambitious, 
patriotic,  aggressive.  Just  as  we  desire  to  be  the  dominant  power  on 
the  American  Continent,  so  .Japan  aspires  to  be  the  dominant  power  in 
Asia.  She  is  already  stirring  China  out  of  her  lethargy  of  ages,  and 
when  that  great,  inert  mass  of  humanity  shall  have  been  aroused  into 
action  the  whole  world  will  have  to  sit  up  and  take  notice.  There  is  a 
strong  antiforeign  sentiment  in  both  .Japan  and  China.  True,  the 
argument  is  often  made  that  the  United  States  is  the  traditional  friend 
of  both  of  these  oriental  countries.  But  in  my  study  of  world  politics 
1  have  learned  to  believe  that  at  the  psychological  moment  this  tradi- 

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tiorial-friendship  business  turns  out  to  be  a  pure  myth,  lake  the  his¬ 
tory  of  our  own  country,  for  instance.  We  certainly  were  indebted  to 
France  for  her  unstinted  support  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  and 
yet  in  1798  we  made  actual  preparation  to  go  to  war  with  our  whilom 
traditional  friend.  The  immortal  Washington  himself  was  appointed 
Lieutenant-General  of  the  American  forces  in  anticipation  of  the  con¬ 
flict  which  then  seemed  inevitable. 

During  the  civil  war  all  the  nations  of  Europe  recognized  the  bellig¬ 
erent  rights  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  with  one  exception — Russia, 
Ever  since  that  unfortunate  period  in  our  country’s  history  we  have 
loved  to  speak  of  our  traditional  friendship  for  the  Empire  of  the  Czar. 
But  in  the  late  unpleasantness  between  the  Russ  and  the  Jap  our 
friendship  for  the  former  was  suddenly  chilled  by  the  wintry  blasts 
that  blew  across  the  steppes  of  Siberia,  while  the  cockles  of  our  hearts 
were  aglow  with  the  warmth  of  our  sympathy  for  the  little  brown  men 
of  Dai  Nippon. 

Surely  the  latter  should  have  reciprocated  our  sentiments,  but  if 
the  history  of  the  period  immediately  succeeding  the  signing  of  the 
treaty  of  peace  at  Portsmouth  has  been  correctly  written,  it  will  show 
that  the  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  peace  envoys  to  re¬ 
ceive  a  money  indemnity  from  the  hated  Tartar  did  much  to  cool,  among 
the  Japanese  masses  at  least,  the  traditional  friendship  that  has  been 
said  to  exist  between  Japan  and  this  country,  lo,  these  many  years. 

And  then  let  us  take  the  case  of  China.  The  powers  of  Europe  had 
been  gazing  with  longing  eyes  upon  th*c  boundless  domains  of  the  Celes¬ 
tial  Empire.  In  due  season  “  spheres  of  influence  ”  were  speedily  se¬ 
lected,  and  the  final  dismemberment  of  China  seemed  to  become  the 
question  of  a  few  brief  months.  Suddenly  the  matchless  diplomacy  of 
the  late  John  Hay  came  to  the  relief  of  the  Chinese  Government,  and 
the  policy  of  “  the  open  door,”  with  equal  privileges  to  all,  was  hailed 
as  the  true  solution  of  the  dismemberment  problem.  But  our  friendship 
for  China  did  not  cease  with  that.  In  the  settlements  growing  out  of 
the  ”  Boxer  ”  troubles  we  were  able  to  render  her  material  assistance  in 
reducing  the  amounts  of  indemnity  demanded  by  the  various  powers. 
At  any  rate,  we  exercised  great  moderation  in  presenting  our  own  de¬ 
mands.  It  was  constantly  asserted  that  China  had  always  looked  upon 
us  as  her  traditional  friend,  and  when  these  latest  acts  of  sympathy  and 
friendship  were  made  manifest  to  her  people  we  naturally  believed 
that  the  latter  would  never  turn  upon  her  traditional  friend.  But  a 
short  while  after  a  few  Chinamen  in  California,  aided  and  abetted,  so 
I  have  been  informed,  by  a  few  white  attorneys  in  that  State,  wrote  to 
their  brethren  in  Canton  that  if  the  latter  would  only  institute  a  boy¬ 
cott  on  American  products  our  people  would  immediately  let  down  the 
exclusion  bars  for  fear  of  losing  China’s  trade.  You  all  must  remem¬ 
ber  how  the  cables  were  kept  warm  telling  our  people  of  the  rapid 
spread  of  the  anti-American  feeling  in  every  portion  of  the  Celestial 
Empire.  AVhere,  oh,  where  was  the  traditional  friendship  that  so  many 
people  love  to  talk  about? 

And  then  there  is  the  strange  and  wonderful  case  of  England.  She 
had  been  looked  upon  as  the  traditional  enemy  of  the  Republic  ever 
since  your  own  John  Hancock  inscribed  his  bold  signature  “  where  all 
nations  should  behold  it,  and  all  time  should  not  efface  it,”  to  the  im¬ 
mortal  Declaration  of  Independence.  For  over  a  century  our  perfervid 
campaign  orators  had  been  indulging  in  the  luxurious  pastime  of 
twisting  the  lion's  tail  until  that  noble  beast  was  almost  ready  to  roar 
with  anger  and  resentment.  But  in  1898  all  Europe  was  ready  to 
interfere  with  our  plans  for  the  liberation  of  Cuba  Libra.  And  then, 
as  is  often  the  case,  the  unexpected  happened.  England,  our  tradi¬ 
tional  enemy,  became  our  friend.  Since  then  we  have  heard  much 
about  “hands  across  the  sea,”  and  “blood  is  thicker  than  water.” 
Let  us  hope  that  the  friendship  of  these  two  powerful  nations,  repre¬ 
senting  Anglo-Saxon  civiK.:ation,  will  continue  to  make  for  the  better¬ 
ment  and  the  uplifting  of  mankind  in  every  section  of  the  globe. 

But  what  I  wanted  to  emphasize  was  this  fact :  That  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  commerce,  and  the  settlement  of  international  questions,  the 
reliance  upon  traditional  friendship  is  not  one-half  as  potent  or  effective 
as  reliance  on  a  fleet  of  good  battle  ships,  augmented  by  cruisers  and 
submarines  of  the  latest  improved  types,  and  adecpiate,  modern  coast- 
defense  fortifications.  By  continuing  the  construction  of  these  we  pre- 

gare  in  time  of  peace  to  maintain  peace.  Forty  years  ago  the  brilliant 
eward  announced  to  his  countrymen  that  the  commerce  of  the  future 
world  be  carried  on  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Both  the  United 
States  and  Japan  are  now  seeking  to  control  that  commerce.  Each 
country  will  make  every  effort  to  achieve  its  ambitions.  It  is  the  hope 
of  every  patriotic  American  that  the  question  may  be  settled  without 
resorting  to  the  arbitrament  of  arms. 

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